Embodiments of the invention relate to an architecture addressing limitations in shared nothing clusters. More specifically, this invention implements cluster-centric tiered storage with a flexible tier definition to support performance of transactions.
A shared nothing computer cluster is a distributed computing architecture where each computer node is independent and tasks are divided between computers. No one computer node in the cluster has to wait for another computer node in the cluster to perform a task. In other words, there is no single point of failure, as known in a storage area network.
Each node in the shared nothing cluster has some form of data storage, including volatile and persistent. As data is created, it is stored in at least one data storage location, including volatile and/or persistent. The goal in storing data is to decrease the response time to read that data in support of a read transaction. Different formations of the data storage have different levels of performance, and are generally arranged in some form of a hierarchy so that frequently accessed data may be present on a faster form of memory than infrequently accessed data.